Oops! It happened again -- tsunami test alert causes scare

People along the US East and Gulf Coasts received a startling "Tsunami Warning" message on their phones Tuesday, after a routine monthly test message was mistakenly pushed out by some weather apps as a real warning.

The National Weather Service sent the test message via the Emergency Alert System at around 8:30 a.m.

The message "was intended to only go to state warning points and certain other government agencies." However, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, "some news and weather services picked up the test message and posted it on their apps and via social media."

The push alerts and urgent messages people received on their phones did not make it clear that the warning was a test.

AccuWeather, makers of one of the apps that sent the alert, pointed the finger at the National Weather Service in a press release after the incident on Tuesday, saying the NWS coded the test message incorrectly.

"This morning AccuWeather passed on a National Weather Service Tsunami Warning that was intended by the NWS to be a test but was miscoded by the NWS as a real warning."